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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Obama Justice Department Gives Special Treatment To Andrew Sullivan

A federal judge raised questions of fairness after a U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts asked that marijuana charges against journalist Andrew Sullivan, a British citizen, be dismissed. It seems the Obama Justice Department had concerns that Sullivan's application for permanent legal status in the U.S. might be adversely affected if he faced a conviction for smoking pot in a federal park. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Collings ultimately granted the dismissal but had this to say according to a Massachusetts' law blog, The Docket:

U. S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings says in his decision that the case is an example of how sometimes “small cases raise issues of fundamental importance in our system of justice.”

While marijuana possession may have been decriminalized, Sullivan, who owns a home in Provincetown, made the mistake of being caught by a park ranger with a controlled substance on National Park Service lands, a federal misdemeanor.

The ranger issued Sullivan a citation, which required him either to appear in U.S. District Court or, in essence, pay a $125 fine.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office sought to dismiss the case. Both the federal prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney said it would have resulted in an “adverse effect” on an unspecified “immigration status” that Sullivan, a British citizen, is applying for.

At the hearing, Collings observed that Sullivan would still have to state on his application that he had been charged with a crime, and he asked both the prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney, Robert Delahunt Jr. (cousin of U. S. Rep. William D. Delahunt), for more information about why paying the $125 would have “any additional adverse effect.”

When no attorney could fully answer the question beyond citing advice from immigration lawyers, Collings requested that Delahunt submit a brief on the issue. But before Delahunt could reply, Assistant U. S. Attorney James F. Lang jumped in and said that Collings had no power to inquire why the U.S. Attorney had decided to have the charge dismissed.

Collings says he expressed his concern that “a dismissal would result in persons in similar situations being treated unequally before the law. … persons charged with the same offense on the Cape Cod National Seashore were routinely given violation notices, and if they did not agree to [pay the fine] were prosecuted by the United States Attorney … there was no apparent reason for treating Mr. Sullivan differently from other persons charged with the same offense.”

In fact, noted Collings, there were several other defendants appearing in court the same day who were charged with the same offense.

In his opinion, Collings wrote that the U.S. Attorney is “is not being faithful to a cardinal principle of our legal system, i.e., that all persons stand equal before the law and are to be treated equally in a court of justice once judicial processes are invoked. It is quite apparent that Mr. Sullivan is being treated differently from others who have been charged with the same crime in similar circumstances.”

Ultimately, Collings acknowledged that he had no choice other than to allow the case to be dismissed, but “that the Court must so act does not require the Court to believe that the end result is a just one.”

Sullivan, you may recall, is the pathetic journalist who insisted without any proof that Sarah Palin's disabled infant, Trig, was her daughter's and not her baby. Here's a little of what this imbecile wrote in the Atlantic:

Now, when are we going to get some record of Trig’s birth and parentage from the hospital or the doctor? It’s been over a month now and still nada. Some basic record confirming Palin’s eight-month special needs pregnancy, amiocentesis, labor and birth would be immensely easy to find and release - even off the record - to news organizations. And yet the McCainiacs refuse to even go near it and demonize anyone who dares ask for something that must be extremely well documented and easily found. They have stated on the record that Sarah Palin is Trig’s biological mother. But they refuse to provide one iota of confirming evidence.

1 comment:

I am thinking that this favoritism Obama is showing Sullivan might explain some of Sullivan's biased journalism that has surprised many, such as Justin Raimondo has been noting, at antiwar.com and elsewhere. Very sorry to learn this, and glad to read here about the valiant judge who is openly questioning the motivation of our USDOJ! r

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